The 64th Hunger Games - The Victor That Was Never Meant to Win
by Torchix
Summary: Olea is just a normal 12 year old working in District 11, and she has the same odds as any other up for their first reaping. She wouldn't be that surprised that she was picked, if it wasn't for her brother being the other tribute. Can she beat the impossible odds and be the winner? Not an SYOT. Some things won't make sense until the end, part 1 of a series which may edit canon.
1. Chapter 1 - One More Day

**The 64****th**** Hunger Games – The Victor Who Was Never Meant to Win**

**Chapter 1 – One more day**

**Olea's POV**

"Hey tiny! How're you doing up there?" A voice called up to me from below the branches. Peeping over the foliage – rich with food we were meant to be harvesting – of the tree I was in, I peered down at the people on the ground below me. The tree was high, but heights have never bothered me, I was raised this way, to be one of the workers in the fields and orchards. If you're small, you climb the trees to the highest branches. You can't afford to be scared of heights – if you are, you can't work your best, and if you don't work to the highest standard, your family doesn't get the money to live on. It's a life or death matter, really.

I spot the person who was calling to me, my eldest brother – just turned nineteen only a few days previous – was waving up at me, shielding his amber eyes from the sun with his other arm, large and muscled from all the manual work. His dark skin - a common trait here in district 11, it was rarer for you not to have it than have it – was covered in sweat that shone in the sun, and he was squinting even with his arm up. I waved back down with a smile, cupping my mouth with my hands once I was sure I was stable.

"I'm fine up here! Catch!" I un-cupped my hands, grabbed the satchel of picked fruit I had gathered, and threw it toward him. Holding both arms up, he easily snatched the bag from the air before it hit the ground, winked at me, and then emptied the bag into the wooden cart. Then, the satchel was thrown back up without any previous warning, and I flailed out to catch it, failing miserably. I cast a glare down at him, raising an eyebrow, "Thank you for the warning, Taxus!" The idiotic giant just laughed and went back to grabbing the lower fruit. I groaned, and scrambled down the tree to grab the satchel from the lower branch it had landed on. As I neared it, I heard creaking among the branches, and jumped, nearly falling from the tree – something I _never_ did – before a large hand caught my small wrist. Looking at my 'saviour', I glared seeing my other older brother – eighteen years old – holding onto me with a grin.

"Slipped, huh Olea?" Salix said, pulling me properly back to my feet and standing on the branch. It creaked beneath his overly muscled weight, threatening to crack. I stood too, the branch beneath my feet not creaking in the slightest, I was much too light. Neither of us had meat on our bones; his weight purely came from the muscle of the tasks he rotated through. Time was spent here in the orchard, out cutting down grain in the fields, picking the cotton, digging up other foods that grow in the earth – you got more money by doing more than one of the jobs. At my age, however, we stayed to the jobs like this – climbing high trees that no one else could go up without breaking them or getting stuck.

"Shut up Salix! Come on, jump down! You're going to break the branch and get in trouble!" I snapped, giving him a look, hands on hips. My little display did nothing but make him laugh, but he obeyed and jumped down to the ground, a loud thud sounding from the connection of his bare feet with the ground – but not before handing me something. I rolled my eyes as I slipped the glasses on, seeing clearer as the dark started to take over as the sun began its slow descent. For anyone on the ground, the glasses wouldn't be necessary, but up here in the thick foliage of the trees I needed as much vision aid as I could get so that I didn't fall to the floor. If I did, I would likely break several bones, and I wouldn't be getting any treatment for it. Looking around, I grabbed the satchel and climbed back to the top of the tree to pick any remaining fruit that was up there. We wouldn't be working much longer today, they often kept us past sunset to get as much work in as we could, but not today. They wanted us in bed so that we could wake up on time for tomorrow, to get up and be ready by roughly one o'clock, the time of…

Cutting the thought off, I scrambled to grab the last of the fruit before it was time to clamber down. I grabbed the last of the fruit, shoved it in the satchel, and then peering out of the top of the tree, I looked at the sun. Time to close up for the day I think. I stare at the sunset for a minute more to confirm it, then nodding, I checked around the branches to see if the little birds – Mockingjays – were there to hear, and then sung out a small tune. Four notes. The birds paused, and then the tune passed around, alerting the people on the ground and lower branches. I heard equipment being packed up, and stood on the highest branch I could get to. Salix and Taxus saw me, and then high fiving each other as they always did, they stood below me. Taking a breath, I jumped down and felt the wind nearly taken out of me as both of them caught me and settled me on the ground.

"C'mon then sis, time we went a got a good night's sleep, if we're not up and ready tomorrow we'll be dead, literally," Taxus said, his voice eerily cheery even now. Easy for him to sound like that, he was out of the running this year, he'd missed having his name in those stupid fishbowls, whilst I was in them for the first time. My name was already in there seven times – nothing compared to Salix, who I had lost count on, or how many other people in the district had their name in, but for a twelve year old it's a much larger amount than is seen on average. My family was struggling – we were a rather large family.

Pushing all thoughts of the reaping out of my mind, I nodded at my numbskull older brother and walked to the cart to empty the last satchel. Taxus followed after me, taking his position at the front of the cart to pull it along to where the food should be taken to. This job was one of the reasons he had so much muscle, he did it every evening after it was full, and several times during the day as it filled up rather fast.

As he did that job, my family all soon gathered around me as we headed back toward the exit to the orchard. My mother was only a little taller than I was, with thick hair tied into multiple braids, black but greying in parts. My father was the same, but his hair was shorter and straighter than most others in the district, and he was about as tall as Salix. Both held hands, an old tender love that I admired. Around our feet, my overly hyper six year old sister, Acca, ran around, braids flailing in the breeze behind her, her golden eyes bright and alive. We never understood her energy – we barely had enough to eat, let alone make someone so energised that they could run around so much. But she was a little flicker of life in our lives, we like it.

My family began to chat to the other families around us, talking about the workload, and inevitably about the reaping that was to come in the morning. I heard the four notes I sung to the birds at my left, and turning I let a smile take over my face as I saw a familiar little toddler on someone's shoulders singing it in a beautifully soft little voice. Her name was Rue. She was brought to work every day because her parents couldn't afford to leave her alone in their shack. She stayed on their back or shoulders all day, picked any fruit she could reach, always a little helper.

"Wow little Rue, you pick things up really fast, don't you? By the time you're five you're going to be scaling trees like an expert, I bet," I said, ruffling her frizzy hair, her giggling before our families went their separate ways. My smile faded, and the rest of the walk back to our shack was in silence.

Once inside, I ate my small rationing of bread – not enough to stop the rumbling in my stomach, and then went straight off to my bed. Well, it wasn't just mine. I shared it with Acca; we didn't have enough room for there to be beds for everyone individually. Even the boys had to share. But we got by, just about. I tucked in my sister, and laid myself down beside her, wrapping my arms around her tiny form and stroking her soft curls, loose from her braids. She nuzzled against me, and we both attempted to fall asleep despite the unbearable racket the boys were making in their bed, play fighting or something along those lines. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

Longer than even I could anticipate.

As soon as morning came, it was time to get up and prepare for the reaping. We always slept in, and by the time everyone was awake, it was only two hours until the reaping began. If we were late, we would be punished by certain death, so we all immediately sprang into action, eating our rationing of bread and drinking a glass of water. After that, we all took a bath – each using the same metal tub. We didn't have long in the tub, and I again had to share with my little sister. She kept splashing me, but it kept some cheer in the gloomy morning, so I didn't complain. We washed our hair, cleaned under our nails, washed our faces, and did our hair.

The wash brought out curls in my hair, curls that were natural but rarely showed due to the lack of care my raven locks received. They fell in ringlets to my shoulders, some in my face which was rather annoying. Mother stood behind me, pulling some of the curls into small braids, and tying them together behind my head, keeping some more of them from my face. After doing this, she whispered to wait a moment in my ear in her soft voice – she used to be a singer for the birds when she was a child – then headed to our box of belongings. I slipped my high necked blouse on, a dull yellow colour, as I waited for her to come back to me. When she did, she was holding a folded orange item of clothing, with a piece of string holding a golden cross on top of it. My eyes widened a little, and I looked at her to make sure. She nodded.

"Take them. You need a nice dress, and you've always had your eye on the cross. Salix is taking the moon, you can take this," She smiled an old, worn out smile and tied the chain around my neck, before undoing the dress which seemed to button all the way down the front, and slipped it on over my blouse, buttoning it up for me, and smoothing it out. It dragged on the floor, and the sleeves were too big, but this was mother's only nice dress, the one she had worn to her wedding. It was a blessing to wear it. It was precious to her. The necklaces, the cross and moon, were the only expensive things we had, passed down from generations ago, when times were not so tough.

"It's time to head down there now," Father said, taking my mother's hand and letting Taxus scoop up little Acca. She held her arms out to me and Salix in an air hug, knowing we needed luck and reassuring. She was young, but the games were already imbedded into her young mind. We had lost friends to these games. It never truly left us alone.

Salix put a firm hand on my shoulder, golden eyes looking down at me with reassurance, telling me I wouldn't be picked. I nodded, knowing the odds were in my favour, technically. But this was unpredictable, the Capitol loved to mess things around, and we couldn't really know for sure how many of our name was in there. They claimed it would only be what we have put ourselves in for, plus our age additions, but the bowls always seemed too full, even with the amount of children in the districts. I shook my head, erasing the thought. I would be fine.

Before I even registered it really, we were down in the crowded pens that corresponded to our age and gender. I was once again scared out of my mind, watching the stage with my eyes wide and drying up due to being open too long. I was too scared to blink. I had no idea why the fear suddenly overcame me, but it did. And it didn't show signs of going away any time soon. I tried to focus on something that would make it go away, anything, but my fear racked brain only made it worse by focusing on our representing Capitol worker, Ceres Nui. Her skin was dyed a sickly green colour, and her hair was a deep, dark, unnatural green with purple streaks, twisted into corkscrew curls around her face, framing her thin lips – also purple – and narrow, purple eyes. Her extravagant clothing followed the colour scheme her unnatural skin and hair did, and she was in about… twelve inch high heels. Capitol people confused me to no end, and seeing the ridiculous woman wandering around talking to people as if she weren't about to send two children to their deaths just made this all the worse. It was purely entertainment to those people. Sick entertainment.

A shrill voice interrupted my thoughts, as Ceres began her usual talk about the past of Panem and the reason for the games. We had all heard it roughly a million times, so barely anyone really paid attention. It wasn't until I saw her reaching for the bowl of female names that I paid more attention, wondering which of our friends would be picked out this time. To head to their imminent death. We had few victors; the odds were never ever in our favour.

So my horror is imaginable when I hear the simple words: "And our female tribute is… Olea Woods!"

My heart literally skipped a beat, I'm sure of it. No. No. No no no no no! It can't be me, it can't be! I have to stay here, I have to stay alive, and I have to be there for my little Acca, for my mother and father and friends! I can't die… My name, it's only in there seven times out of thousands… no way… no way… The figures can do nothing to reassure me, my name was drawn… and district 11 is not known for volunteering.

With a sharp nudge from a girl beside me, I take a deep breath and whilst trying not to trip over my dress, I walk up to the stage, shakily taking the steps up to Ceres, and flinching visibly as she wraps a cold arm around my shoulders, smiling too cheerily for any sane person to smile at such a thing, and then looking out to the crowd.

"Now, time to pick our male!" She let my shoulder go, and I relaxed immediately, her hand digging into the fishbowl of male names, and pulling a slip out. She held it out to read it, and before the words even left her mouth, I was ready to break down in tears, seeing the name, "Salix Wood!"

My heart skipped again, before beginning an insanely fast sprint of beats, and I had to do everything humanly possible to stop from hyperventilating, and inevitably crying. I couldn't break down in front of the nation; it wasn't safe to do that. Not when you're soon to be pushed into the games. You needed to be strong in appearance. But as Salix, who after this year would have been free from the games forever, walked up to the stage, tears pricked my eyes and I had to rapidly blink to get rid of them. Salix looked stunned, though I couldn't tell if it was due to my picking or his own, or both. I decided both. It was so rare for siblings to be picked, from what I knew. The odds of it were slim. But looks like the odds were definitely _not_ in our favour today. Not at all.

Salix took his place on the other side of Ceres, and tried to peer around her at me, but she seemed to move into the way every time. Then, as if it wasn't obvious by the horrified reactions of only one family in the crowds, or the fact we had the same eyes and last name, the Capitol woman turned and spoke to us in her Capitol accent, saying: "Are you two related?"

Salix's usually warm eyes were cold and narrowed as he looked at the woman, and spoke through his teeth, "Yes. She's one of my baby sisters." I wished I could reach to him and grab his hands, they looked dangerously close to fisting and wringing the stupid woman's neck, which I knew would only spell his immediate demise in the arena. The gamemakers wouldn't give him a chance. Instead I settled for giving him a stern look, pleading with him, until I saw his muscles relax. The exchange took mere seconds, but already Ceres – in her usual, annoying, overdramatic manner – held both our arms up in the air, looking out into the audience.

"We have our tributes! What an interesting Hunger Games this will be!"

* * *

**End of Chapter 1! I apologise for the random start, it got off topic to begin with, but I was trying to give a feel for our tiny little tribute. Also, I wasn't trying to make another Rue with this character – she has the same tune, occupation, and basic appearance as her because that's just what District 11's people are like, and the tune had to have come from somewhere, why not an old worker and friend of her family? I adored Rue, and I wanted to try using District 11 for my Tribute, something I have yet to see among other OCs. **


	2. Chapter 2 - On Our Way

**Chapter 2 – On our way**

I sat on the plush cushions of the Justice Building, not paying any attention to the lavish surroundings. It was horrible. Horrible. I didn't care for the luxury; I didn't care for the comfort. Everything I had at home was perfect just as it was, I didn't care anymore, I wouldn't complain at all anymore, if I could just go back to my family as if this afternoon had never happened!

All I could do was rock back and forth on my rear, arms around my knees which were pulled to my chest, the tears that had prickled at my eyes whilst I could be seen by the public now silently releasing themselves down my face, falling in splashes onto my lap, wetting the orange dress. The Peacekeepers in the room alarmed me to no end; they wouldn't stop staring at my rocking form, standing guarding the door that would soon let in my family and friends to say their goodbyes to me. My last time to see them. At twelve.

I shoot them a sharp glare when the watching eyes get too probing for me to handle, but as soon as I do so they have turned their backs, opening the doors, allowing me to be knocked back by my little sister, who knew much too well what was going to happen to me. I wrapped my arms around her shaking body and held her tightly to me, burying my face in the soft curls of her hair, unwittingly taking fistfuls of the back of her dress, sobbing against her. Her tiny hands played with my hair and patted my back, despite how upset she obviously was. My parents stepped in right after her, and soon I was also wrapped in their arms, crushed in the embrace, but not caring. Maybe if I stopped breathing, I wouldn't have to go.

No, they'd just revive me and send me in anyway.

"Th-This… this cannot be right… th-they cannot take two from one family in the same year… it… it-it's not right!" My mother bawled, face buried in my hair, which was quickly becoming soaking wet from the amount of tears, "W-We cannot lose either of you! A-and… a-and…"

"At least one of us is going to die… I know…" I'm surprised at how steady my voice is. I'm crying heavier than I ever have, shaking and sobbing, and yet my voice isn't betraying any of my emotion. I tried to count this as positive, it meant I wouldn't give it away to my fellow tributes, but it was hard to think that way. I was going into an arena of death with my brother, and at least one of us would not come out alive.

"S-Stick together, won't you? We can't watch you kill _each other_… we…" Even my dad was crying, but he was trying not to make it so obvious. I weakly nodded, sobbing harder and clutching tighter onto my little sister's dress. She looked up at me, tears running down her face, eyes blotchy and red, lips quivering, then hugged me even tighter with a big kiss on my cheek. I broke down more, holding them tighter yet, until just before they had to leave. They let me go, and I stood on the seat, unbuttoning the dress and removing it, revealing I had my orange shorts on beneath it, handing the dress to mother.

"T-Take it back. I won't take something so precious away to the Capitol, it belongs to you…" She only nodded, holding the dress close to her chest after folding it, as I went to remove the necklace.

"No, keep that. It can be your district token," She said, giving me a stern look through her teary eyes. Reluctantly I nodded, holding the cross tightly in my hand.

When they were told to leave, Acca grabbed my leg and wouldn't let go, and I saw the Peacekeepers about to go to grab her. Quickly I tried to pry her off myself, letting out a sigh of relief when father managed to pull her off me before the Peacekeepers could get to her. She was screaming and crying as the three left, making me choke up and start shaking roughly as I tried to suppress the sobs that tried to break out. I wanted to scream too. But I couldn't. I couldn't even summon the energy to let out a noise of that power.

After a couple of moments of silence, I looked up to see Taxus stepping inside the lavishly furnished room, holding his large muscled arms wide to me. Without a word I leapt across the room and hugged him tightly around the neck, burying my face against his shoulder as his strong arms held tightly onto me, my small body more like a doll than another person compared to his close to seven foot form. I sobbed hard onto his shoulder as he slowly moved more into the room and sat down, resting me on his lap and rubbing my back, whispering things to try and calm me.

"H-How is Salix?" I choked out, not looking up at my brother.

"He's more worried about you than himself… he's cursing all the older girls for not volunteering to take your place…" Taxus said, large hand still rubbing my back, brushing over the slightly visible bones of my backbone. I choked out a humourless laugh.

"T-Typical Sal…" I said, digging my bony fingers into the back of his neck. He gently pried me away from him, his orange seeming eyes staring into my golden ones, hard and focused.

"You try your best little sis. You and Salix stick together, with your occupational skills one of you may just survive if you work together. Promise me, sis. Promise." His voice was more serious than I had ever heard it, and his eyes were the same. His hands gripped my shoulders, and I could only force myself to nod, tears still falling in fat drops down my face. Giving a soft sigh, he rubbed my cheeks and under my eyes, brushing the tears away, "Stay strong Olea. Don't give them the satisfaction of making you seem weak and helpless, don't let them win. Have hope."

"I-I… T-Tax…" He shushed me quietly, kissed my forehead, then gently set me down after one last bone-crushing hug, ruffling my curls and then heading out of the room with a last smile, that I would be sure to imbed into my brain so that I would never forget my overly cheerful elder brother.

He was the last person to come and see me. I knew other people, but I also knew that though they cared about me and my brother, they were not spared even the three or so minutes to come to see me off work, only the families were given the privilege of a short time off work when someone was reaped. Friends didn't get such a privilege.

It was a short walk after that to the train station, which has always looked so run down from the outside. As soon as I had seen Salix outside of the rooms of the Justice building, I had leapt at him and refused to let go, even when Peacekeepers tried to pull me off him. Eventually, they gave up (likely so our sibling love could be shown for the cameras), and Salix shifted me around onto his back, where I clung on for dear life like a living backpack, his arms under my legs, kissing my hands as they rested over his shoulders. I had to admit, having my big brother beside me was comforting whilst it could last, though I knew eventually we would be in an arena where one of us would die. At least.

"You okay Olea?" He asked me quietly as we were joined by Ceres, soon followed by two of our victors. Two of our very few victors. I nodded, burying my face in the back of his neck, and his coarse black hair. I could almost hear the smile that formed on his face at the movement, as he gently tickled me under my knees, causing me to kick out and laugh despite myself. After a cough was heard, we stopped our exchange and looked at the two victors, who would no doubt be our mentors. Chaff and Seeder, I think their names were.

Chaff, who was actually just a little shorter than Salix, looked at us both, crossing his arms over his chest, which appeared a little odd with the apparent missing hand on one of his arms. Seeder, beside him, looked a little less stern, instead having a soft smile on her face.

"You two are siblings, right?" She said, brushing a greying strand of hair from her face, golden eyes soft. Salix gave a nod, shifting me up a bit on his back.

"She's my second youngest sister… This was my last year in the draw…" He sighed, looking at his feet. Seeder gave a sympathetic smile.

"Well, I can already guess what your tactic for the games is going to be. Come on, we can talk more on the train, over lunch. Once in-…" Seeder began to speak, before Ceres' annoying, obnoxious Capitol accent broke into her sentence, rudely interrupting her.

"Once in the train carriages, you will head to your rooms and dress appropriately, and have a _shower_," She sounded like she was going to puke when saying that, eyeing us, "and then head to the dining carriage, and whilst in there, have some manners, please."

Without another word, Ceres walked onto the train and off into one of the carriages a few down from the one we had stepped into. No doubt that would be her own private cabin, where she could stay away from us. I hated her. So much. Even mother, who always told us hate was a very strong word, agreed that she was deserving of the term being used. There were several other things I could call her, but one my age shouldn't use such vulgar language.

"I cannot stand that woman…" Chaff muttered under his breath, before branding a huge grin, and stepping onto the train, "If you need me, I'll be getting some booze from the bar carriage."

"As always," Seeder said with a soft sigh. Chaff grinned wider.

"As always," He repeated, before walking off. Seeder shook her head, and then turned back to us, gesturing with her right hand for us to come inside the train as she stepped on. Salix had to duck a little at the door to get through, and I did the same due to being on his back, but once in the ceiling was plenty high enough.

"Olea, I'll take you down to your room and explain everything to you about the functions of everything here, and get you dressed in what Ceres calls 'appropriate', you have to know the woman for a number of years to understand her tastes. Salix, Chaff will join you shortly, but your best bet is just to wear a decent dress shirt and pants, she's not so fussy about men. Plus… you don't want to rely on drunk Chaff anyway," The female victor said, as Salix knelt to let me hop off his back, not that I couldn't have done so with him standing. He gave a nod to Seeder, kissed my forehead, ruffled my curls and then walked off. I pouted a little, before letting my expression fall once he was out of sight, "You're taking this worse than you're letting on, aren't you?"

"I know what his tactic will be too… it's going to be just to keep me alive, isn't it?" I said without much expression on my face, looking up at the taller 11 native. She sighed softly.

"That is what we can assume, yes," I sighed as she said this, looking down, "We will help both of you, as much as we can. But…"

"Only one comes out, I know," I finished her sentence, knowing full well I'd be hearing that excuse a lot from various people, especially these three, over the next couple of weeks before I went into the arena, and probably whilst in it too, "Just… show me where the room is and do everything you said you were going to do…" She smiled softly and held a hand out to me, and despite my urge not to appear like a silly little kid, I took it and held it tightly, allowing her to led me through the train's carriages toward my cabin.

I was silent as she talked me through how to use the shower's various buttons and contraptions, as well as various other things in the room, and showed me the various outfits that Ceres would find 'appropriate' for dinner. Or lunch. Whatever it was, I wasn't sure of the time any longer. Seeder informed me that I did have a few hours until the meal, so I should try and get some rest before I got ready, either that or spend the longest time getting ready in my life so far, and probably ever. Then again, there was the stylist experience to come…

She left me alone after that and I stood in the centre of the room silently for a long moment, taking in everything around me, the luxury was extreme, I hadn't expected such treatment for someone they were sending to their death. But then again, the Capitol people had very twisted minds. They wanted their tributes in a rested, well looked after state so that the show would be good enough to watch.

They made me sick.

I had never quite felt as strongly about the games as I did now, I always hated them, I always knew they were something bad that took people away from their families and we had to watch them die on a TV screen, as if it were simply a made up show for enjoyment. I knew, especially when friends of ours were taken, that it was horrible and it hurt people to an extent that could never be healed, that it affected whole communities with who was taken and who died. I knew the only people who benefited were those in districts such as 1, 2 and 4, who had so many come back to them. Anyone from here, they were doomed.

We were doomed.

I started to move, tracing my hand across everything in the room, feeling the soft fabrics and fancy wooden panelling, all the luxuries and beautiful craftsmanship, which no doubt was robbed from the workers in Districts 7 and 8, who couldn't use the things they made themselves. Just like we couldn't eat most of what we harvested. I took a moment for doing this, and then slowly I took off my blouse and my lower body's clothes off, stopping to observe myself in a full length mirror in the room, running my hands along my sides, feeling the slight bumps of the ribs under the skin, protruding because of the lack of fat.

I sighed quietly, then walking through to the bathroom, I stepped into the shower, reaching up and turning the dials, pressing buttons and other parts on the shower, setting it to a soothing temperature, with some scents and lotions spraying over me. I ran my fingers through the knots in my curls, feeling them sliding out with ease, no doubt to do with something that the shower was using on my hair. I felt like I was losing a second skin as the grime that our short baths at home on reaping day couldn't get rid of. Looking at my skin, I could see my skin was a slight shade lighter than it had seemed to be. I could see the prominent bones become more noticeable also, as the layers of dirt that hid the shadows were washed away.

After soaking in the nice warm water for a good few minutes, I stepped out of the shower and went to reach for a towel, only to be blasted with air that dried me off instantly the second I stepped out. Somehow my hair was not frizzed up, which saved me from having to brush through it again, and I then stepped through to the main part of the cabin, not bothering with a towel, just grabbing my clothing and pulling it on.

The first thing I observed was how the clothing was rather loose. The shirt I was wearing appeared to be made of silk, and was fastened around my neck by a piece that looked like a detached turtleneck, only attached at the front. It fell in a way that it loosely hung around my ribs, but was pulled back tight at my waist by a band of material, all of this effectively hiding my ribs from view. No doubt from behind, you could still see my backbone, but Ceres never walked behind us, she was much too proud to follow, not lead.

I ran my hands across the pink material, slightly wrinkling my nose at the colour choice, but enjoying the soft feeling of the clothing, much different to the coarse, itchy material of our clothes from home. I pulled on the black leggings that had also been put out, along with a pair of slip on shoes that were soft on my worn feet. Finally, I pulled some of my hair back into a small tie behind my head, and then looking toward the door as I heard a knock.

Salix waved one of his large hands at me, dressed in a dark purple dress shirt and black dress pants. I nodded at him, and he stepped inside the cabin, holding his arms open. I didn't need anything more, I ran at him and hugged him tightly again, burying my face in the fabric of the shirt and clutching at the back of it with my fists. He rubbed my back again, stroking my hair.

"You ready to go face the beast and see what poison they're going to be feeding us with?" He said softly, making me look up at him. His orange-like eyes were a comforting sight, they were familiar and calm, despite everything. But of course, in his mind-set he wasn't worried about himself, so he had little reason to be too panicked. He only had to worry about me, and I bet he at least had faith he could keep my alive somehow, and at least wouldn't be watching me die.

Well, let's see if he really ends up protecting me, hm?

"Sure… better just get it all over and done with. I feel like that old tale, 'Hansel and Gretel'… they're fattening us up to die," I said, rolling my eyes and forcing out a giggle. It wasn't so hard to act normal; he wasn't some stranger from a distant part of the large district we lived in. He was family; I could still be myself and not be scared I was going to be brutally murdered in my sleep.

"Yeah, that's very true… except here cannibalism is strictly forbidden, so they won't be eating us," Salix said, mimicking one of the Capitol Accents. I giggled softly, slipping my small hand inside his large one, "That guy was a creep."

"Don't remind me, that year was just gross…" I stuck my tongue out, swinging our hands, "C'mon, let's just go."

It took us a while to find the right part of the train for the dining room, something you would think would be simple. Just move down or up the parts of the train until you found it, right? Well, the trains that the Capitol had District Six manufacture were much more than simple trains, they had much more room and many more doors and compartments than you'd think. By the time we found the right part of the train, Ceres was pacing back and forth, and seeing us she immediately gave us a hard glare with those unnaturally coloured eyes of hers, walking over to us and roughly pulling us to our seats, shoving us down into them by our shoulders.

"You're late!" Obviously she was a stickler for timing. Perfect.

"Well excuse me, but it's hard to find our way around this thing!" I could see Salix's hands had clenched into fists again, and I gently touched his hand, "And no man handling Olea! You may not be that strong but anyone from the Capitol is so much healthier than her that you could break her!"

"Sal…"

Ceres looked ready to bite back with something, but a hard hand slapping onto her shoulder made her stiffen and then sigh, pulling her shoulder away and sitting down at her seat, Chaff silently laughing from where he stood. Seeder shook her head, taking a seat on my other side, as Chaff did the same on Salix's other side, still silently laughing to himself. Even without the noise, he looked ridiculous with how hard he was trying not to laugh whilst still laughing on the inside. I struggled not to laugh myself, disguising it with a cough.

As we began to eat the vast, vast spread of oh so delicious food, Salix began probing the two mentors for tips and information, Chaff commenting on how eager he was. I only started paying attention after about five dishes of food. After so much, you'd think I'd be stuffed beyond belief, but a life time of starving meant I had plenty of room. Salix was being a little more reserved meal wise.

"Arenas change every year kid, so don't expect us to be able to give any specifics. But of course, you must've known that. You've had to watch it just like the rest of us. Anyway," Chaff started, some words taking on a slight slur, "the most important things are shelter, food, and water, again that should be obvious. Shelter is normally easy to find, but not always good for hiding, but some years shelter is nearly impossible to find. Either of you remember the year that most people died of hypothermia?"

"Yeah, I remember. They broadcast the hanging of the Gamemaker that year, because they were so unhappy with what happened…" Salix said, thinking back to the games. I just about remembered it, it was the only games I remember not being so scared by, because most people just turned blue and dropped off in their sleep, and were not bloodily killed by Careers and other tributes.

"Well, that generally means that there'll always at least be means of fire building, but since then there's also been an abundance of shelter filled arenas," Seeder continued, cutting off Chaff as he tried to start a slurred sentence, snatching the liquor bottle off him, much to his childish protest, "Hopefully, you should be able to find shelter and survive the games by hiding out, doing minimal harm. Yes, it's a killing game, but if  
you go out looking for kills, you go out looking to _be_ a kill. Even the Careers have sometimes found hunting too much to handle, and it's resulted in the few years that those districts do not win, like in either of our games for example."

"What about food? And weapons? I already know there's no way we can survive the cornucopia with both of us getting out," Salix said, leaning back in his chair, looking at the woman. She brushed a hand through her hair, fiddling with a grey strand.

"It all depends. Sometimes weapons are easier to get than you'd think, and you could probably grab a knife from somewhere near the edge of the supplies, small weapons like that are normally left on the outskirts, not deep in. Food wise, hunting is the best way to go. Plus, you two have it easier with edible plant knowledge, and no doubt ability to harvest such plants. Of course, it depends on the arena, but there's usually some form of plantation to eat," She explained, leaning back herself, arms crossed over her chest, "Don't risk the Cornucopia, you're right about that. If you want to keep Olea al-…" I sat up straight and spoke up immediately when I realised it was as if I was deaf and just there, not needing the tips myself.

"Hey! I'm not going to totally rely on him! I need to be able to help him you know, don't ignore me and talk about me like I'm not here! We both have to stay alive as long as we can, _that's _got to be the plan, not just to save me! God! Help us both!" I snapped, clenching my bony fists. Ceres was yawning and sighing by now, bored of the talk, probably thinking about how badly we're going to do, and wishing she was a District 1, 2 or 4 escort.

"Yeah, give the girl a chance," Chaff said, voice still slurred, but clearly he wasn't totally hammered. Unlike his friend, Haymitch Abernathy, who I bet by this point was throwing up in a toilet or sink whilst his poor District 12 tributes were cowering and wondering how they'd survive. I had to admit one thing; we had better mentors than that poor district. We'd had more winners than them; they'd had only… what, two victors in the whole time the games had been going on? I heard Haymitch was quite a memorable victor, but he was a right mess now. If he were sober, maybe they'd have a chance?

Why am I worrying about them? They're going to end up dead, just like us. No doubt it'll be another year for a District 1, 2 or 4 winner. Last year it was from District 2, and this year I think I'd place my bets on 1. I hadn't even seen the tributes yet, but there always seemed to be a strange pattern in the Career winners. I never understood it.

Seeder sighed, "Sorry. I didn't mean to come across that way. Both of you, name any skills you have. Anything at all."

"I've been tugging the carts and helping cut down crops and dead trees my whole life, I've got some muscle on me, so I can throw heavy things, break stuff… I could probably break a career's neck if I got my hands on 'em," Salix said. I nodded, everything he said there was true. He was very strong; he had to be careful not to break Acca whenever he hugged her. The image of him killing someone wasn't quite as disturbing as I expected, surprisingly. But it helped I imagined the district 2 tribute who killed one of my friends a couple of years back, "I'm also pretty good at throwing in general, aiming and stuff. I have to chuck stuff up into the trees and other stuff, so… yeah. Other than that I don't really have anything to boast that I know of."

"We can work with that. Its occupational markers like you have that help people from our district in the games. The winners have generally been huge muscled people like you, or nimble. Olea, what about you?" Seeder asked, looking with soft eyes to me. I shrugged my shoulders.

"I don't really have any skills that I could name off…"

"She's really fast and nimble, like extreme levels. She works in the tops of the trees, which I know you must have too as a child, so she can leap between things really easy, climb up stuff easily, all that. Plus she's really good at throwing too, small things though, she has killer aim, hopefully literally," Salix butted in; speaking up for me in ways I couldn't do myself. I never observed those skills in myself, they seemed normal and widespread to me. Most of the other young kids had skills similar to mine, at varying levels. Some were better than me, too. I wasn't anything that special, just a little above average.

"Another typical occupation Marker, but you two combined… that could work out. Depending on the arena, you could use climbing to your advantage. The Careers don't focus on that sort of skill, they get the basic form of the skill they need then leave it be and focus on killing, killing and more killing, and maybe some sadistic injuries thrown in somewhere along the line. If they can't catch you, they can't beat you. Salix, can you climb?" Seeder said, looking between us both constantly.

"Somewhat. My bulk makes it harder now, but when I get a strong enough tree I can climb like when I was a kid. Trees like that don't come up often though, it's not like District 7 or anything, the trees are only strong enough for the food and the light kids." Everything he said was true, I didn't need to say a word; he was doing a good job at explaining for the both of us. Which to be honest, I wished he wasn't. I wanted my voice heard still, as I had stated only a little before.

"Yeah, what he said. He risks smaller trees though, jumps up to scare me half to death sometimes," The comment I spouted out to get my voice on the matter heard began sounding off after only a moment, and I regretted the phrasing of the end. I fell silent again, bringing my knees up to my chest, ignoring the dirty look Ceres gave me for having my feet on the chair. I started to pick at the strange meat on the plate, slowly eating it instead of gobbling it down like a pig as I had been before. Salix's large hand rubbed my head, and I smiled to myself at the gesture.

"It's time for us to watch the reapings now, you two," Seeder then informed us as she glanced at a clock, standing up from her seat as a woman dressed completely in white stepped to take her plate. I looked at her briefly, catching a flash of red hair, amber eyes, and skin a shade that was nearly exclusively found in our District. I blinked, looking at her closer as she picked up the plates and took them to a trolley to role away, the reality of her appearance sinking in slowly. Seeder gave her a soft smile and looked uncomfortable when she looked at her, and she and Chaff quickly left the room, heading for the TV car. Ceres glanced around awkwardly, and then also left.

That woman… girl… she was from District 11!

Salix ushered me out of the room, whilst I was still partially in shock. An Avox. Someone from our district had actually committed something serious enough to be an Avox? Granted, in our district the slightest thing could get you in trouble, perhaps she had simply stolen a large quantity of the food we have to pick, that would likely account for it. But… it was unnerving. I had stolen food before. A lot of people had. Some of us were lucky and didn't get caught due to the small quantity we took, but some weren't so lucky. Was this girl one of those people?

I barely registered Salix sitting me on his lap when we reached the plush, lavishly furnished TV room, fiddling with the frizzed curls of my hair, slowly soothing me into a calmed state. I registered my surroundings just in time for the pre-reaping commentary to end, and the words 'District 1' flash up on the screen in block lettering. I saw Seeder had a notebook and a pen out, something that (going by her expression) was much too primitive a format for Ceres' liking. Ignoring the ignorant woman, I looked back to the screen, deciding to look at her notes after the reapings were done playing.

The escort for District 1, who looked even more ridiculous than Ceres, pulled out a piece of paper and called out a name, which sounded just as ridiculous as she looked (District 1 was known for very extravagant or overly confident names), and at first a small girl in the crowd, appearing to be from the thirteen year olds' section, look scared. But of course, it was a career district, and soon a girl yelled out that she volunteered. The girl who climbed onto the stage was tall, probably at least 5'11", dwarfing my tiny form, and was heavily muscled. Her facial features and bone structure appeared overly narrow though, and I immediately decided on the nickname 'Narrow Face' for her, not particularly caring for her ridiculous name (which, by the way, was 'Shimmer'). Her blonde hair was in a loose ponytail, with a green ribbon with white frills, and her narrowed eyes were deep green.

I also immediately didn't like her.

The boy volunteered before the name was even picked, storming onto the stage, his features similar in colour to Narrow Face, and managing to make even Narrow Face look small. He had to be at least 6'5", probably taller. I felt tiny. How would I ever stand a chance against people like them? Salix was plenty tall enough, sure, he was pretty close to this 'Gold's' height, but I was at least two feet shorter than him! Plus, he looked ripped beyond belief, and could probably crush me in his bare hands! I was screwed! Muscle pants here would tear me apart!

It phased straight to the D2 reaping, and a similar pattern occurred. Some weedy girl who looked about as prepared for this as I felt was called up, but instead a girl with curled dark brown hair walked up to the stage with an exclamation of volunteering. When she turned to face the crowd, I was stunned. This girl, though her stature – nimble but filled with muscle and strength – was that of a career, the girl had a patch covering one eye, suggesting it did not work or wasn't even present! How could someone with such a disadvantage want to volunteer, no matter the level of training…? Were they trying to prove something?

The boy that followed looked just as muscled and close enough as tall as Gold from the previous district, his hair a dark auburn colour, tousled messily, his face unshaven. Grizzly face, he was immediately christened.

District 3 wasn't anything all that special, it never was. District 3 was poor, just like us, even if not at the same extreme levels. Both the tributes looked positively terrified, the girl being only thirteen years of age, the boy coming from either the seventeen or eighteen section. The boy looked surprisingly chubby, but not in a healthy way, more like he had recently got a large amount of food by luck and his body had taken it all on too fast. The girl looked like a weedy girl, she didn't have much flesh on her, her hair was thin and long, a blonde unlike the boy's dark brown, and was also wrapped in a ribbon. They didn't look like competition, and I didn't particularly take notes past their age and initial appearance.

I perked up again at District 4, watching a girl with flowing ginger curls walk calmly onto the stage, looking content to have been picked. She was career by build and appearance, so that didn't surprise me, even though the first thing that struck me about her was how… fish like her large lips, strangely shaped eyes, and barely visible nose looked. Her name was something typical D4, but she was christened 'Fish Face' pretty quickly. She was muscular, but not to the extremes of the other careers, appearing to have a build better made for speed than strength. The boy who followed, taking the place of another boy, had overly angry looking eyebrows, hair a darker and less saturated shade than the girl's, spiked up at weird angles. He was tall, not as much so as D1 or D2 and also had a form built for speed, but with more muscle than Fish Face.

District Five was nothing special, a girl with slightly tanned skin, bright ginger hair, and green eyes, along with a red haired boy, with gold eyes and a nervous expression. District Six wasn't much either, the girl was something to note though, perhaps only in features – she was Albino. Her eyes were a light purple-grey colour, her hair a stark white, something that may not aid her in the arena as she sticks out like a sore thumb. I didn't know much else about the condition, but I knew there were possibly other disadvantages to it too, that would not help her in the arena. District Seven appeared muscular, probably from all of the axe work and carrying of logs they had to do, the girl blonde, and the boy brunette. The two from District Eight looked scared; they were frail and weak, their hands trained for sewing and cutting, not throwing weapons or breaking bones and necks. District Nine were similar to us, the boy had build from working in the grain fields, the girl having some build but looking more nimble than muscled. District Ten was reaped with a girl with black hair, a fringe covering her eye, and… oh god, a twelve year old boy. Another twelve year old in the games…

I took a breath and closed my eyes when our reaping came up, not watching it, feeling no need. I had experienced the feelings I had gone through when it happened, I didn't need to watch it and feel it all again.

Finally, District Twelve appeared on our screen. They had the typical appearance of Tributes from that District, frail, broken, lost and with dark hair and eyes. No one volunteered, like in all the lower districts, no one ever did. Not unless they were suicidal, or determined to save someone who was reaped. It rarely happened.

It went to the commentary that Claudius Templesmith and Caesar Flickerman gave after the end of the reaping replays, giving their own brief study of what had happened, sometimes replaying the reaping clips again. I didn't pay attention, not really, I already knew what would be said about our District, it would be all about our relation. Simple as that.

Another thing I also knew was… we didn't stand a chance in hell of winning those games.

* * *

**Was that too long winded? I tried to start making it briefer, but the reapings thing dragged it out more than I wished it had. I'm also worried that my first person skill isn't too good, even my original book I'm writing is in Third Person Narration… so I'm not that good with this. Well, just two chapters to get them to the Capitol at least. Now… their arrival and the stylists. Oo this bit should be rather fun~**


	3. Chapter 3 - The Capitol

**Chapter 3 – The Capitol**

The night on the train was relatively calm after that, I barely managed to sleep due to dreams about the other tributes and what things could happen during the games, always waking up just before I was brutally killed. Salix had started by running from his cabin whenever he heard my screams, but after about three times he just stayed in my room with me, letting me sleep with my head on his chest and his arms around me in a brotherly hold I needed at that moment. I managed to relax for the majority of the night after that, and was only stirred by Ceres shaking the both of us, ushering us for breakfast.

Breakfast went by unusually happily, considering the mood of the previous day and the nightmares I had experienced the night before. Chaff wasn't drunk yet (Seeder had thrown every bit of alcohol into one of the toilets on board, determined to keep him sober), Ceres was becoming strangely politely mannered, and Seeder was being friendly as she ever was. She was like another mother, she truly was. How she had come out of her games, and still managed to keep so friendly, I didn't understand. Many victors turned to unfavourable habits, for example Haymitch and Chaff with their drinking, or turned into jerks, for example Enobaria (though as she was D2, she could easily have simply been that way beforehand), and in some cases totally lost their minds, for example Wiress. But Seeder seemed okay, she seemed to have made it out rather unscathed, mentally. I liked her. It was good to have someone nice to mentor us; even Chaff was a rather nice seeming guy.

But as we found ourselves passing through the old mountains to get to the train station, our nerves rose back up again. Standing and heading to the window, deciding the play the card of getting in their good books from the start, I had to kneel on a chair to look out properly, opting to stand on it to make it even easier. Salix seemed to catch on, walking over and standing next to me, still managing to beat me in height. I pouted, smacking him lightly over the head just as we came into view of the Capitol people. The bright colours nearly blinded me.

"Salix, you giant idiot! Man why do I have to be so tiny!" I pouted, hands on hips. Salix laughed lightly, waving out at the people watching us – who had all began smiling and laughing seeing my childish display with my brother, some waving back at us – and started to ruffle my curls.

"Good one you two. As much good exposure as you can get," Seeder said, voice sounding as if she were smiling, though I didn't look back, focusing on the strange people outside the train window.

We soon pulled into the private area where we were offloaded from the train, and shoved into a blacked out car to be taken off to the 'remake centre' where we would have to meet our stylists for tonight. I was dreading it, if I was completely honest. We never got anything as bad as District Twelve, we had perfect stylists compared to them – with their coal mining suits, coal dust themes, specifically the ones where they had been put through it naked but with black body paint – but we didn't have very good ones in the scheme of things. Farmers were a running theme with us, that and the food itself. One year they put them in a giant suit that was basically just an apple… they shared the costume, filling half each. Safe to say, that year we were more of a laughing stock than District Twelve.

So, I was dreading this.

After being ushered into the building, I gave a quick goodbye and good luck to Salix before being whisked away into a room by three people. Once in the room, they instructed me to strip down naked and then lie down on a table they had set up. It was all happening so fast, I didn't really comprehend what I was being told, and only really realised how bare I was when I heard them start commenting.

"It's so hard to work with twelve year olds, they've got so little puberty in them that they have no shape at all, even if they have skin on their bones," One said. My eyes flickered to her, seeing a very typical capitol woman. Her skin was dyed a deep grey, with darker grey make up on her lips and eyes, and strange patterned tattoos all over her face, neck and arms. Her hair was an ice blue, falling to her jaw, with strange white horns showing out of it just above her temples. The weirdest, and creepiest, thing was the fact her eyes had been dyed pitch black.

"Tell me about it. But at least it means the hair they have isn't too bad. I better get to work on that, you two help me, you're not needed for other stuff quite yet," Another female voice said, this time the girl being a lot lighter. Her skin looked almost a natural shade, spare the white tattoos coating her cheeks and running down her arms and torso, which was unnaturally skinny for someone who likely ate so much. Her chest was unnaturally large, and strands of pink hair were practically the only modesty she had covering them due to the fact her shirt was nearly letting them fly loose. The rest of her hair was held up in gravity defying sections that flew into the air in strange curls, her eyes pure white, and make up pink.

"Fine fine, I'll get her lotion bath ready," My final prep member said, tone sounding as if their eyes were being rolled. The voice had made me suspect a third female, but looking at them it appeared it was actually a man. His hair was an even darker black than mine, and his eyes and eerie red, with sharp brown lines radiating from the corners of them, and all along his forearms, his clothes loose on his top half, but much too tight on his lower half. He had a strangely friendly look to him, despite the creepy eyes. Why have I got a team of creepy eyes from one extreme to the next?

"Now dear, just relax little munchkin and let us do our work," The first woman said in a very patronizing voice, before being hit over the head with a high heeled shoe by the pink woman.

"Now now Bolbe! She's a human, not a doll. 'Munchkin'? Have you been watching old films illegally again?" She said, rolling her white eyes, and then smiling at me, "Sorry about her name. Your name was… Olive, right?"

I couldn't help but giggle lightly, "Olea. But close, Olive is some form of my name."

"Oops, sorry. I'm Suada, little miss rude here is Bolbe, and the other one is Miksa," She said with a large lipped smile, pulling a trolley of various things over to the bed, "Some of this may hurt, but it's all part of the process. You won't need to have too much done, so don't worry."

"Alright…" I wasn't confident that the fact that I had less to do, or that even if it were true that it would hurt any less, but I went along with it anyway. That was what Seeder and Chaff had both told us – just go with it.

Wax and strips of weird paper were soon being plastered all over my body and removed with blinding pain, tearing every follicle of hair out of my frail body, every hair spare the ones on my head and face – and even there they plucked at my eyebrows to make them some different shape. My body felt sore and burning after this, and did so until I was dunked in a bath, where the lotions and concoctions soothed my raw skin really fast. They washed my hair with more lotions than the train had offered, and soon I felt it back in a frizzy form of curls I hadn't felt in my hair for a while.

After the bath, I was wrapped in a robe and I felt a thin layer of makeup put over my skin, before the team looked me over, and then started to leave. Suada waited a moment behind, looking to me, leaving with the words: "Ace will be along soon. Do everything he says, he's a great stylist and I'm sure he'll make you look even better than we have!" She beamed and then waved, walking out of the room.

I waited in silence for a while, waiting for this 'Ace' to come in, awaiting what strange costume I would be put in. I hummed to myself, singing old songs from my District, practicing my little four note tune that I was now glad little Rue and other girls and boys had picked up from me; it was an important part of life. I sure hoped one of them had the right voice.

My thoughts were broken when a rough, yet somehow soothing, male voice broke the silence, "Olea?"

"Ah! Uh! Yes, yes that's me!" I blabbed, caught by surprise, standing up. The man had skin that I could have sworn was the exact shade as my own, and golden eyes that were similar to all my family's. His hair, however, was blonde in colour, a trait that was a stark contrast and looked odd with his skin tone. He had black stubble, which made it look even stranger. He had three black lines on each of his cheeks, from the bottom of them by his jaw upwards, and was dressed in mostly yellow and black. His fashion was rather normal by Capitol standards, so maybe we had a bit of hope.

"Take the robe off; let me check that I've done what I have right. I was given your approximate measurements before you arrived, so some tweaking may have to be done," He said in a very pronounced Capitol accent, though it had a tweak of something District sounding.

I clutched my robe tighter to me, not really wanting to be exposed again. I'd rather wear this for the rest of my life than take it off again, the more that happened to me, the more real this all felt. And I didn't want it to be real. And even if it had to be real, I did not want to be exposing my stupid puberty avoiding body to some person I had just met. However… I had no choice.

Sighing softly, I slipped the robe off and my body was left bare once more. The man stepped over to me, circling around me and taking measurements every now and again, some being a little too close to intimate skin for comfort. He said things like 'Don't worry, I'm not going to bite', and muttered various measurements to himself, before stepping back with a smile, gesturing for me to put the robe back on. I gladly slipped it back onto my body, holding it tightly onto myself.

"Luckily my measurements all fit well enough, and we have plenty of time to get you ready, so for now we can have a spot of lunch if you'd like," Ace said, smiling softly with his slightly artificial lips.

I was about to say no, but a loud rumbling in my stomach that I had been able to ignore before rang out, craving more of the Capitol's food. Ace laughed, pressing a button to call for an Avox to bring us some food, which one soon did, laying out a generous lunch platter on a table in the room.

I only wished I could send some back to my family, but a selfish part of me couldn't help but just be glad I was finally enjoying some good food. I shyly sat down on one of the plush chairs, and started eating as neatly as I could, Ace eating as well. He asked me questions, asking about Salix, my family back home, asking about the things I was singing before he came in, as well as other things. I answered most of them, between servings of food, but kept a lot of detail to myself, still wary of anyone Capitol native. He seemed nice enough, though.

"Alright, you finish up here; I just need to go pick your outfit up from the other room," Ace said, wiping his mouth and putting down the napkin he used to do so, before standing up and silently leaving the room. I watched as he left, then continued to eat for a minute or two as I waited, until I decided that if I ate one more bite I'd be sick whilst on the Chariot.

Where had he gotten to? He'd been gone for over ten minutes now; it shouldn't take this long to grab a c-…

As if he were a mind reader (which in the Capitol would not surprise me), Ace burst back into the room with a clothing bag, holding what must be my costume. He had a grin on his face, ushering me to stand up and remove my robe. A little more comfortable with him now, I did so a little less reluctantly than before, though god it was still embarrassing.

"Now, I tried not to focus on the work you do, but the environment you do it in with this. Farmers is so overused, so this should be a breath of fresh air, and show off your cuteness," I blushed more than I obviously already was, looking down. He laughed, and then blindfolded me, making me squeak, "Don't worry, I'm not going to molest you or anything," Mind reader for sure, "It's to keep what you look like a surprise."

"Alright…" I wasn't so sure about this.

I let him work on me as he slipped the apparently strapless dress onto my body after, the material soft and slightly crispy feeling at the same time. It hugged my body in a way I felt it might make me appear to have a figure, and fell to just above my knees, with some parts brushing down to my knees. I felt a wet substance on my arms, being swirled around in strange patterns, and then as the blindfold was removed but I was forced to keep my eyes closed, the same happening from the corners of my eyes outwards. More makeup was applied to my face, and my hair was left in its frizzy state, with something threaded through it. With a high pitched 'There!', Ace uncovered the room's mirrors, and let me look in them.

"…It's perfect Ace… you… pictured life in the orchards perfectly…" I found myself smiling as I spoke, running a hand over one of the material leaves my dress was made up of, coloured in colours of orange, red, gold and brown, an autumn pattern that reminded me dearly of the orchard leaves that I clambered around in daily. There were gold lines drawn in swirls all over my arms, and around my golden eyes, my lips had been turned golden, and there was a red accent above my eyes, my eyelashes enhanced. In my hair was a vine, with small fruits on it, and the same was occurring around my legs, representing the food from the district in a subtler way. I was barefooted, but that mimicked our lifestyle also. Shoes were actually a rather rare thing.

"You're a little autumn fairy, dear child," Ace smiled, standing behind me, "The only thing missing is wings, but I feel that would take away from the overall effect," I nodded vaguely in agreement with what he was saying, running my hand over each of the leaves with a smile, looking at the nearly unrecognisable girl in the mirror. I had never seen myself so clean, so cared for, so… pretty or cute.

"Thank you, Ace…" I said, smiling softly at him. I liked him. He had some annoying Capitol qualities, but he had some sympathy behind him, and was trying to help as much as he could. Some stylists just didn't care at all.

"It's not a problem. Now then, it's about time to get you down to the Chariots, and to see your brother," He held out a hand, and I slipped my small hand into his, smiling more. Yep, exactly the same skin tone.

As I caught sight of my brother soon after, I tried not to laugh a little. We'd had our themes matched, and he was dressed in a skirt thing made of leaves that were the same colour as mine. He had vines around his arms and legs and hair, with golden patterns on his chest and face. He had his token on, and I grabbed at my neck for mine, panicking when I didn't feel it, before relaxing as Ace fixed the string around my neck, whispering a silent thanks to him.

"You look adorable little sis," Salix said, chuckling and looking down at me. I pouted, poking his chest, making him laugh more.

"You two keep that dynamic up in the chariots. Act normal, wave at the crowd but banter around like you normally would, okay? You two need to play your sibling love for all it's worth, it's your best shot," Seeder told us as she walked up to us, "You ready to come down to the chariots then?"

"As ready as we can be I think… Which is 'only if we have to'," Salix said, making Seeder roll her eyes.

"Considering everything, you two are some of the most cheerful tributes we've had…" She said in her motherly voice, arms folded, "I guess having someone you're not afraid to trust is a good thing, no matter the inevitable outcome." I wasn't sure if she meant to say the last part out loud, so didn't make a comment as Salix took a hold of my tiny hand in his, and kissing my forehead reluctantly told Ceres to lead the way.

Seeder followed us down, but Chaff left as we reached the lift that would take us down to where the Chariots start from. I was nervous, that was for sure, shown by how I could feel myself start to shake. I somehow relaxed more when Ceres left to go and join Chaff, apparently to try and get an initial look at how many sponsors we might get.

I saw the other stylist for the first time, noting how her skin was also a similar colour to ours (was this some method by the Capitol to try and make us feel more 'comfortable' or something?), her hair was black and fell to her knees in curls, running with bright pink-purple streaks. Her eyes were a natural brown, her lips and tattoos that covered her upper body all the same colour as her hair streaks. Her clothing was skimpier than even Suada's, but her body wasn't as fake.

From where we ended up standing, I couldn't see many of the tributes, though that could be to do with my height. I was rather grateful to be honest; I knew that whilst our outfits may get us more attention than usual, and perhaps a few sponsors' attentions, the other more favoured districts would have much better outfits. Plus, they were scary as hell up front, so I didn't want to see their overly muscled bodies more than I have to.

The people I could see were District 10 and District 12, and even then it was hard. The two in front of us were going to be laughed at, I was nearly certain. District 10, Livestock. They normally got things like cowboys, farmhands, things that didn't attract much attention, but didn't attract the _wrong_ attention either. This year, however, they appeared to have gotten the unlucky end of the stick – their clothes were brown and looked like rough leather, tight body suits, then with horns sticking from their head – trying to mimic some form of animal from there, I guessed. They definitely had it tough, not made easier by the fact one of them was the other twelve year old.

Poor kid.

Behind us was even worse. Salix half playfully, half seriously covered my eyes when we both realised that District 12 were both stark naked spare a black, powdery substance, which must have been to represent coal dust. That had to be the worst thing they had ever had– had that stylist from the last time returned? – nothing could be more embarrassing than that. I didn't even need to know about the 52 years previous to know that.

"Oh my god…" Ace said, covering his mouth to stifle a laugh, "I think that stylist has doomed District 12 even more than normal… at least we tried to make you two look decent!" He said, throwing his arms up in over exaggerated horror. I stifled my own laugh at his reaction.

"Alright, time to get you guys into the Chariot, District one is about to move off," Seeder said. Salix nodded, lifting me up by my waist (making me let out a pitiful squeak in the process) and placing me in the chariot. He then stepped up, and took hold of my hand, squeezing it gently. I realised instantly that I would be hidden from at least one side of the procession corridor of people due to his height and bulk, which wouldn't really help our case. I looked up at him, and he nodded, seeming to know what I meant. I was then a little scared of how he'd fix the issue.

I saw the first Chariot pull out, District 1's burly tributes once again on full display. I watched them as they passed around everyone watching, not giving much acknowledgment to the crowd spare a confident, flirty smile from Narrow Face, and flexing muscles from Muscle Pants. Shimmer was in a rich purple gown that fell to her ankles, parting at the front, right up to her navel, and she was wearing little underneath spare a small pair of shorts made of golden feathers, and lined with jewels of various colours. It was lined and frilled with gold, and it hung so lowly on her chest that her cleavage was fully on show, and I heard Salix mutter something along the lines of 'they look like they're about to pop out'. Gold was in nothing but a waist tied piece of rich purple material with golden lining, which gave only just enough modesty to hide certain things. Both had small headdresses of golden feathers and jewels.

District 2 weren't far behind them, One Eye and Grizzly Face rolling out, looking completely contrasting to each other personality wise. Grizzly was waving and flexing his muscles, whilst One Eye just stood there, arms behind her back and just giving a steely glare to the people around her with her one working, uncovered eye. Both were dressed in what appeared to be some form of armour, a chest piece with what I think were lions on the chest and shoulders, leather skirts, and other such things.

District 3 weren't spared much modesty either, but they were more fortunate than District Twelve. Their hair was slicked back, the girl's in a ponytail, with some sort of product so that it shone and was probably rock hard. Their skin was painted silver, with green and blue lines that looked like something high-tech all over the painted areas. Their outfits were skin tight silver suits with the same patterns, and their boots were heavy metal from what I could see. I guessed they were meant to be some sort of robot.

District 4 was getting wolf whistles, the girl having her long ginger curls falling down her back, but with nothing over her chest, leaving her rather large breasts to fall into the open air, with just slight patterns of scales around and under them, which lead down her sides into a tail of some sort that was made out of blue and pink pearls, which flicked up behind her. She looked like a mermaid, something I had seen in old children's books we found in bins of peacekeeper families. The boy was dressed similarly, and both had pearls and other sea related treasures threaded into their hair.

District 5 I couldn't quite distinguish over flashing lights, which suddenly cut out at one point, not working to their advantage at all. But District 6 stood out.

"This year is a really bad year for some people…" I muttered, and Salix nodded a little in agreement. District 6 were both dressed in something that looked like the material tyres are made of, wrapped in it, with tyres around their head. It wasn't the worst outfit today, but it was laugh worthy to the Capitol people, which didn't put the Albino girl and her district partner in good favour.

District 7 were, of course, trees once again. As they had been for as long as I can remember, and probably longer. District 8 were dressed only in a long multicoloured scarf each, which wrapped around their bodies to cover any indecent areas. District 9 appeared to be made as Scarecrows, something we used a lot back in District 11 as well, to keep animals and birds away from crops. District 10 passed in front of us in their animal suits, and it was only then I was truly aware we were now in the public eye.

"Smile, wave, act cutesy," Salix said quickly, beginning to wave both arms at the crowd, which showed off his muscle and his 'love' for the Capitol people at the same time. I took a moment to let it all sink in, and then began to wave with an overly happy smile on my face, making childish and playful gestures that got some attention. However, I think the thing that got us the most attention was when Salix suddenly lifted me up and put me on his shoulder, making me squeal lightly from shock, not expecting it. The antics pleased the audience, however, and we got more cheers as we passed through, hearing the people behind us gradually turn to laughs at the unfortunate District Twelve.

Salix had to let me down as we reached the point where we stopped in front of the President, who would speak soon. Coriolanus Snow, the currently ruling dictator of Panem, a man with altered lips, paper skin, white hair, and white roses in his lapel. He scared me, and I clutched my brother's side to show as such. He wrapped the arm around me, kissing my hair, which made me relax a little, zoning out of his speech until we were taken out of sight of the Capitol Public, taken somewhere where everyone filed out of their Chariots, and were greeted by mentors and escorts.

"I think you got decent attention there. Nothing huge, but definitely a lot more than normal," Seeder said, smiling softly at us both, though she was clearly trying to look serious. I smiled lightly, looking around the other tributes.

The Careers had already bundled themselves up together, and Muscle Pants was flirting very obviously with Fish Face, which judging by her responses and by the fact they left together, I have a feeling that the boy was a worthy person to her. Her district partner didn't look too happy, but he only appeared to grunt and shrug, continuing to talk to the other careers. I get the feeling that that boy is going to be womanising a lot within the games, mainly with the careers. Shimmer gave him a dirty look, but she also smirked, so whilst I guessed she wouldn't be reeled in by his tricks, I realised she would likely try to use the fact he wanted women's attention to her advantage when the Career alliance broke.

Something that surprised me was that District Six's girl was looking at me, but looked away with a red face when she saw I'd seen her. 'Shy, I guess', I thought to myself, shrugging a little. But why was she even looking at me? I remembered that she was one of the other young tributes, was she interested in alliances already? I guess helping out the other young kids wouldn't be too bad… give them a chance. But would Salix accept that?

~X~X~X~

**Are my chapters too long? I'm used to putting a lot in chapters, and I guess it sort of shows… but it's so I can get in detail, plus I'm not used to POV writing as I've said. I'm now working to a plan with this; the whole of the games is planned out day by day, death by death, injury by injury. I may change and add things, but it's a plan that I want to stick to at least the basics on, and I did go through a phase of drawing pictures of too on my DA – they're all still there, my DA name is the same as my FF name. I explained a lot on there and the pictures show off a lot of future events though.**

**R&R!**


	4. Chapter 4 - Preparation

**Next chapter! This time, we'll be seeing training, I think, and seeing why this District 6 girl is mentioned so much. Yay. I like her, I do. I have no idea why, but I like my District 6 girl with her weird name and colouring. Maybe because of stuff I have planned for her.**

**Chapter 4 – Preparation**

We entered a lift, and were informed by Ceres that we each got a floor to ourselves per district, and it went in number order. She pressed a button with '11' on it with her freaky purple finger, and I felt the lift jolt and shoot straight up to the high floors. The lift felt awkward, and I was relieved to be out of the confined space when we reached our large floor. Fully furnished with a dining area, seating area, doors that lead off to bedrooms, a TV area (with a TV about as wide as I was tall), and a big meal laid out on the dining table. Ceres shoved us both, telling us to go and get changed, and then come for dinner.

I said a quick word to my brother as I walked into my room, which was double the size of our house at home, at least. The bed was huge, a canopy bed with flowers engraved in it, the posts made to look like trees, the sheets green and orange and red. The room had walls painted like an orchard in the summer, and everything seemed to be made out of rich wood that wasn't even found in our district, but still… somehow it felt somewhat like home.

I walked around the room, touching all the gadgets and random items, stripping out of my costume, laying it on the bed, then shyly getting an Avox to assist me figuring out how to work the thing that gave out outfits to use, thanking them quietly – glad it wasn't the one from my District – then changing into a white, floral printed dress that went to my mid calves, though I think it was made to go to knees or higher on a taller person. I tied it tightly around my waist with a ribbon as it was much too big for my small body, then started to brush my hair out as I fiddled with one of the other gadgets.

Over the course of only five minutes, I managed to start up some strange music, set weird lights flashing around the room, make the window turn into a view of some very, very freaky looking scene with two men, all of which only went away after I turned the whole room off with the apparent power switch, and then back on, leaving the room normal again. Carefully I then messed with the same buttons, this time getting the music to be soft, like the stuff we hear back home from other people singing, the lighting to be a golden colour like a sunset, and the window to show a living orchard. I relaxed a little, feeling almost like I was at home, but in a better time. Though slowly, the happy feeling descended into a feeling of loss, something I missed, and homesickness took over. Yes, District Eleven was a hell hole filled with starving people, but it was home, and those starving people were my friends and family.

I had just started to cry when Ceres opened the door, looking ready to yell at me for being late, but for some reason her face softened when she saw me crying. I looked away, but heard the clipping of her heels as she walked over the wood covered floor, then felt the bed sink as she sat beside me.

"Oh little one…" She said softly, her accent not so obvious, as I felt an arm wrap around me, "Missing home?" I wasn't sure why this pawn of the Capitol was being so nice, she was always such a sour mutt of a person, never caring when she pulled out names of tributes to shove into this death pit. Granted, I had never seen her behind the scenes, only ever in District 11 at the reaping, but why would she be any different? She hated having our District, she wanted a stronger one. But even so, I nodded, "Oh dear… I know… I know… we get so many young ones from your District… I had thought perhaps with your brother here it wouldn't be so daunting, but I suppose the fact you will lose him or die with him is a lot to handle…"

I looked up at her, stunned. She laughed softly, before looking sympathetic, something that didn't quite fit her altered features.

"We Escorts can be sympathetic too, dear. We see the games in a slightly different light from other citizens. Whilst some of us do enjoy the show itself, it is hard watching the children we have tried to help, _die_. That's why some of us want better Districts, because they normally have one come out alive every couple of years. Well, that as well as the fact they're cleaner," I couldn't help a small laugh at this, and I could almost hear her strange skin stretching as she smiled, "Don't worry dear… we'll be doing whatever we can to get you out of these games. And you know Salix will protect you. You'll see your family again."

I just nodded, not knowing what to say. She smiled, and then shifted me to her lap suddenly, making me jump and her laugh again. She told me not to be scared, then saying something about my hair, and I felt her hands begin to lace through it, skilfully threading it around itself, and I soon felt that it had been braided. She gently lifted me from her lap, guided me to a mirror and held my shoulders, smiling.

"See, you should keep it out of your face, it lets your pretty and cute features show. Looks are important," She smiled softly; then walked out of the room, "Come now dear, it's time to eat."

I was stunned, to say the least. She was… actually rather nice. When on earth did that happen? Shaking my head and fingering with my braid, I slowly exited the room and went to take a seat, sitting next to Salix, who was giving me a look. I shrugged at him, assuming Ceres had had a sweet talk chat with him too, giving him a 'what the hell' look which he returned, then laughed at, before beginning to eat.

"So, training is tomorrow," Salix said, looking up at our mentors, "Any tips?"

"Don't immediately show them what you're good at. Work on new skills, or skills that Careers won't even look at," Seeder said, leaning back a little, apparently having already eaten her fill, though Chaff was still eating rabidly, "Try out some of the weapons, but once you've got good at it, don't over-practice it. And if you really must, make sure that the Careers are focused totally on something else, and when they're looking, do it average or badly. Careers are the biggest problem for tributes like you two. Salix's brawn is already a factor that will attract attention, don't give them any more reason."

"Survival Skills," Chaff spoke up, "Make sure you do them. Gee, Seeder, surprised you didn't say that. It's normally you who points that out, and I'm the one talking about weapons," He laughed, and continued to eat, before taking a huge gulp to swallow, and sitting up, "But in all seriousness. You need survival skills a lot. Arenas vary so much, that any of the skills could be important. Plus, there are often hints in what they give you as to what the arena is like."

"Right. Survival skills," Salix said, "Of course. Isn't that how you won your games, Seeder?" I looked over to the motherly victor, seeing her nod, wringing around her wrists.

"I tried the whole alliance thing, at first. But… that didn't work out so well for me, so I tried to survive out on my own. I had a fair number of scars from Gamemaker traps because of it, but only two kills under my belt. My arena was… ah, what was it…? It was thirty or so years back now so my memory is faded…" I knew that was a lie, from what I had seen, no Victor ever forgot their games, no matter how hard they tried. Guess that was a lucky thing about the fact I was almost certainly going to die, "I… I can't quite recall. But either way, they helped." I wondered how bad her arena had been if she was pretending to forget it, but going by the looks on Chaff's, Ceres' and her own face, I decided it wasn't a good idea to even so much as dwell on it. Chaff looked guilty for even bringing it up.

"So, be good but not too good?" Salix said, receiving nods, "Alright then. And for the individual things?"

"That's where you have to shine. If you haven't got your skill to a level that's super impressive, then show them a number of skills you've gotten fairly good at, including survival. They rank it higher than you'd expect, but if you have weapons… use them," Seeder said.

"They're usually drunker than me by the time they get to District Eleven. They order food and drink around District Seven, are fairly drunk by nine, and are paying no attention by eleven and twelve. You really will need to make an impression. Normally, the head Gamemaker is watching all the way through, which is the only reason scores don't disappear in the later districts, but even so," Chaff said.

After that, everything fell silent again; spare the crazy babble from Ceres, who was back to normal again. Once food was taken away by Avoxes, we headed back to our rooms. I pressed several buttons, and was soon given a pair of baggy orange pair of silk night clothes, and leaving my hair in the braid, I laid down on my bed – a small dot in the middle of the large mattress. The sheets were soft, warm – not coarse, itchy and cold like the sheets at home. I thought about Acca, lying in bed either alone or with Taxus, probably crying. Or talking about how pretty we looked, which was something better to imagine than tears falling from her amber eyes.

I tossed and turned, attempting to fall asleep, but was unable, despite the room and comfort of the bed. Despite my full stomach. Despite all these luxuries I didn't have only a couple of days ago. I would feel much better back in my real bed. The itchy, coarse sheeted bed. I don't care for comfort, the only real comfort I need is being safe at home, not to be here, ready to be sent to my death. I will never be comfortable here. No matter what. These silk, soft, sheets and fluffy, comfy mattress that forms to my body perfectly now I'm still, will never be…

Okay, maybe I can fall asleep now.

* * *

I had barely felt like I had even slept when I woke up, Ceres banging on my door, telling me about how the day was going to be 'So very busy!' and that I needed to get myself up and ready for training. Right, training today. Me, a tiny little twelve year old and the shortest in the games, trying to find some ability with a weapon that will soon be used to kill someone. Right, because that's going to be so fun.

I took forever to get up, not wanting to get out of the comfy bed, and found that an outfit of an orange one piece jumpsuit with a black shirt over it, with the number '11' on the bottom corner and shoulder. I left my hair in the braid it was in, though as soon as I exited the room, Ceres was suddenly all over it again, saying it needed to be out of my face even more whilst we were training, tightening the braid and redoing it too, as a 'French braid', which pulled at my scalp almost painfully, but true to her purpose it did mean almost every bit of hair was out of my face.

Salix's hair was even back in a small ponytail when I saw him, and he was in a similar outfit to me, but in a black jumpsuit that wasn't as tight fitting as mine, with an orange jacket. He waved, and I hugged him tightly, quickly inhaling as much food as I could before we had to get to the training room, which I knew would be soon. When Ceres yelled at us for nearly being late, we scrambled to get last minute pointer reminders, and then were ushered quickly to the lift, which took us to the level the training centre was on.

When we arrived, everyone else was already there, and the woman in charge looked at us with annoyed eyes. Ceres apologized for us, then left hastily, leaving me to cower by Salix's side, making me look even more pathetic than I already must do. Everyone stared at us, the Careers now eyeing up Salix's muscle power, before they all turned to the woman as she dismissed them to the stations. She came and gave us a brief talk about the centre, then walked away.

"Where do we start?" I asked, looking up. Salix shrugged, looking around the many stations. They were filled with weapons, plants, paints, strength building equipment, dummies, various other things, everything to help you survive or kill.

"Guess we should begin with the survival stuff. We should ace plants rather fast, and then we can try fires, and other stuff," He said after a moment, walking toward the station, soon followed by me. He looked through the database of edible plants and berries, and both of us saw some we recognised. I quickly named some of them off, and we tested each other, and used the actual test feature on the computerised part of the station. He managed to get eighty four out of one hundred, and I got ninety three, so we both went through and revised them again. We couldn't be sure that it would be any use, the arena could be barren, and we could have only meat or cornucopia supplies to get by on, if we even got any, but any knowledge could be useful. So we perfected our knowledge.

"So, which ones are the ones that are fatal in small doses?" Salix asked me. I named off a few, going in number of quantity of the plant or berry that it would need to kill, then getting to the worst one of the lot.

"Nightlock, you need only swallow one berry, and the poison releases so fast that it doesn't even need to reach your stomach, it passes through tissue into your bloodstream, and you die instantly," I said, leaning back on my hands as we had now sat down.

"Correct," He smiled back.

"You should try some camouflage!" We then heard from the station next over, both of us turning our eyes to see the albino girl from district six, her hand waving us over. I stood, and looked to Salix. He shrugged, standing also, and we headed over to her. Her painted arm, trying to mimic the pile of leaves, wasn't that good, probably something to do with how she was squinting. Her eyes must be bad, "Hiya, I'm Norell. Or North, either works to be honest."

"I'm Olea," I said, Salix also introducing himself, as she told us exactly how the station worked, and we started to try it, "District Six, right?"

"Yep. Hence the direction inspired name," Norell said, brushing a hand over her frizzy white hair, whining as she got paint in it, splattering some of the messy curls with various colours. I painted my arm with patterns of leaves, and smiled lightly, "District Eleven, right?"

"Yep," I said, "Pretty obvious I guess."

"Oh man look at those show offs, I bet you could do that course ten times better than them Olea," Salix scoffed, looking over at the Careers who were jumping across the gauntlet, barely making a slight wobble, never falling off. But they weren't perfect, that was sure.

"You good at stuff like that?" Norell asked, raising an eyebrow. I shrugged.

"I jump between trees and climb them for a living…" I didn't feel this girl was a threat to us, it didn't seem like a bad thing to tell her what I was able to do and why.

"Maybe you should show them up!" Norell said with slight urgency, "They need some sort of sense knocking into them!"

"I'd rather not become a prime target…" I jittered a little, and Norell sighed, shaking her head, muttering a sorry, "No, it's okay… I could. But, you know," I looked over at it, and shrugged, "We could all try, and I'll do my best."

The other two both agreed, and we walked over to the gauntlet, getting in line, watching as Shimmer darted right across it, blocking the swinging padded arms, not missing a step except for one or two on the descending section. I gulped lightly, she was the last of the careers to go across, but seeing us they smirked and stayed at the end. Norell tried to dart over first, and to be honest she could have worked in the trees if she were from our District, but she didn't see one of the padded clubs fast enough, and she fell off, landing on the mats and grunting. The Careers laughed.

Salix took his turn next, and whilst he hit the clubs away easily with his bulk, it also worked to his disadvantage, and as he was out of practice with jumping between things, he quickly stumbled and landed on the floor, though managing to land in a crouch on his feet, so the careers only snickered lightly this time. Their eyes soon landed on me, however, and as most of our tributes have been past climbing age, or killed in the bloodbath, I know they don't know what the tiny district eleven kids are like. They probably expect me to fall like Salix, and not be able to push away the clubs like Norell.

I jump straight over the first step onto the second, do a quick flip over the first club, landing steadily on my feet on the fourth step, looking briefly at the careers who looked rather stunned. I then realised that I had done enough to shock them, and maybe it was best to make it look like a fluke, so when the next club came for me, I let it hit me, and got thrown back several feet into a wall, gasping for air after it. Salix rushed over, not long followed by Norell, and tried helping me sit up as I clutched my gut, completely winded. The careers were laughing harder than ever.

"Oh my god I'm sorry! This was my idea, eek!" Norell squeaked, hands over mouth. I shook my head, taking deep breaths to try and regulate my breathing, having felt a lot worse from falling from trees in my early years of work, soon managing to get my breathing under control again.

"Let's go try the shelter or fire building stations," Salix said, helping me to my feet, checking I wasn't injured badly, "My god I never thought a person could be thrown that far."

"When you're as tiny as me, I guess you can be," I coughed, taking another deep breath as we headed off to the other stations.

We went through most of the survival stations more than once during the morning session, and by Lunch I had figured out most of what we needed to know in those areas, though we would go back to them tomorrow. Salix went to grab some lunch for us when lunch came, and I observed the groups that had already begun to form in the lunch room.

Of course, the Careers sat by each other, eating and chatting, though Angry Brows was giving Gold dirty looks, probably due to the exchange I saw the night before between him as Angry Brows' district partner, which I don't even wanna think about how it could have ended. Shimmer wasn't talking much, and neither was Kara, but they passed in words to the conversation every now and again, with Gladiator (Grizzly face) being by far the loudest of the group. No one else would be weaselling their way into the group this year, I don't think.

District 12 was sat together, and so were District 3, which wasn't that uncommon an occurrence. District partners often stuck together. Some other Districts sat in partnerships, also, but I also saw that seven and nine seemed to be building up a four way alliance, and District 10 were sitting completely apart from anyone else, including each other. The girl scared me, though she was only two years older than me, I think. Her eyes didn't look quite… sane.

"Hey, can I sit by you?" I looked up to see Norell, holding a tray of food, which appeared to be a rather simplistic set of sandwiches, a piece of fruit, and a glass of something. There were two sets, hinting that one was for me.

"Sure," I said, patting the floor beside me as she took her seat, gladly accepting the food she handed me, "How you found today?"

"Hard. I can barely see, so my aim is worth nothing really. I mean, when I was given a temporary pair of glasses, I could fire a bow, and I can do some survival stuff. But I don't think my chances are that high," Norell sighed, sipping her drink.

"I damaged my back on that wall; I mean it's nothing serious, but its aching like hell… the supervisors are really damn strong," I said, sipping my own drink, glancing to Salix as he started walking back with the food, smiling a little, "Hey… Norell?"

"That's my name."

"Would you like to be our ally?" I asked, without actually realising what had come out of my mouth until about ten second later, hearing her speak.

"Hm… well… I like you. Yeah, I'll team up with you; it'll be nice to trust someone, to have a friend in the death pit," She smiled, putting a hand on my shoulder, "So, Allies."

I nodded, half not believing she'd accepted, "Allies."

"Besides, us younguns should stick together anyway, and with your brother we may beat the odds and get somewhere in this thing," Norell said, shrugging, "Hey, what about Cata?"

"That the other twelve year old?" Alright, maybe what she was suggesting was risky. Groups of kids often did stick together, if there was more than one, but they rarely got far. By most standards.

"Yeah, him."

"Yeah who?" Salix asked as he sat down by us, chomping down on a small sandwich. Considering everyone else was already eating masses of food, we were eating a surprisingly small amount. I guessed that Salix, and apparently Norell, were smart enough to realise that starting a cut down on the food to get used to being hungry before the games restarted our lack of sustenance would be a good idea.

"Cata. Norell agreed to be our ally… you know, young ones stick together. With big muscly Salix to protect us as much as he can," I said sweetly, sticking my tongue out, "Poor kid's on his own… maybe giving the little people a shot this time might be nice…" I took a bite of food, and smiled sweetly at him once more.

"Well… risky as that sounds, I don't see that much of an issue with it. But we're going to have to train extra hard, that kid tried the weapons today and he didn't do so well," Salix said thoughtfully as he chewed his food, stretching out a little as he glanced over at the red head.

"Ah, that's something too! We didn't do any weapons today, Sal. We need to do those tomorrow, preferably first before we go back over the survival skills," Seeder told us we have to learn some weapons skills, and we have none. I didn't particularly think we were going to have many skills past throwing things, but we have to cover every base I suppose. Salix's solemn nod in reply to this statement showed he didn't particularly want to have to learn how to kill people, just as I didn't, and no doubt Norell didn't.

"Who's going to go recruit the cow boy then?" He said after a small moment of awkward silence. Norell quickly volunteered, crawling over to the boy and offering him a muffin. He looked up at her and looked a little scared, but she must have said something (I couldn't see her mouth) because a moment later he was nodding and taking the muffin, biting it happily as he picked up his food tray and scuttled over to our group, shyly waving a hand and nearly spilling his food in the process.

"I-I'm Cata… Short for Cattle, but… I don't like that name, its… kinda ridiculous…" The timid boy said, letting out what I could clearly tell was a deathly nervous laugh.

"My real name is Northel. I know the feeling," Norell said, leaning back on her hands as she chewed something in her mouth. Raising my eyebrow I gave her a look, and she simply gave me a slow, pointed nod with a straight face. Immediately, I burst out laughing and she followed me by doing the same. Salix started to snicker a little, and Cata tried to smile and laugh – he nearly did – and as I briefly glanced around I could see that the careers, and everyone else for that matter, were giving us weird looks beyond weird looks. I guess that people laughing in the training centre wasn't normal. Oh who am I kidding, of course it wasn't. This may be the place where alliances are formed but it wasn't a place where people laughed.

We fell silent again.

* * *

**When I wrote the end of this chapter, I actually hadn't touched this story in a long time. I read a little bit I had already written before, and I found myself wanting to write it again. It'd been a while since I looked over my plans, and since I also hadn't read the books in a long time or watched the movie in some time either, I may be rusty on some details but I think my plans will get me by. This is a side project for me, but I enjoy writing it, so I'm going to keep doing so. A lot of this was probably written ahead of time to get a schedule going. I hope I'm doing as well as I feel I may be! I really like my characters! **


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